FORT MYERS — Luis Patino was excited and ready for his first exhibition outing with his new Rays team on Thursday. He even wore the thick gold chain that former Padres teammate Adrian Morejon gave him for good luck.
The outing went pretty well in the Rays’ 5-2 seven-inning win over the Twins.
Patino got a long out on his 95.9 mph first pitch of the second inning, allowed a double to Alex Kirilloff, then struck out Brent Rooker and got JT Riddle to fly out.
“It’s a good feeling (Thursday),” Patino said. “I got to pitch for the first time with a Rays jersey. I feel excited. I feel happy to do my job and come in here to do my job and help the team. I’m feeling very happy to be here.”
Manager Kevin Cash was pleased with how Patino got there, with seven of his 10 pitches for strikes.
“He just kept attacking with strikes,” Cash said. “We tell that to all the pitchers, definitely a young guy. Talking to (pitching coach) Kyle (Snyder) throughout (Patino’s) outing, he was doing that when he was in San Diego, so we’re fortunate the mindset he’s (brought) over. We hope that we can add to whatever he had.”
Catcher Francisco Mejia, who came over with Patino and two others in the trade for Blake Snell, also had a solid review of the right-hander.
“He looked really good,” Mejia said via team interpreter Manny Navarro. “He had a lot of control of his pitches out there, and he had a lot of…
